04/23/2026
History of Piercings
The Stretched Earlobe
Another thing we have been doing for over 5000 years! You remember our good old friend Otzi the Iceman right? The oldest dated earlobe piercings we currently have physical record of? What if I told he you had his earlobes stretched to 0g?
The stretching of earlobe piercings is a long time tradition of the human race, and generally signified status, beauty, wisdom and spirituality. Ancient groups such as the Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Romans, Mayans, Incans, Aztecs, and many others all around the world practiced earlobe stretching.
One of the biggest names most people would recognize with stretched ears would be Siddhartha Gautama, or better know as the Buddha! There was a prophesy around Siddhartha where he was destined to either be a powerful king or a spiritual leader. To prevent him from becoming the latter, his father kept him sheltered, but shortly after his 29th birthday Siddhartha saw what Buddhist called the Four signs: an aged man, a sick man, a dead man, and a religious man. He came to realize he could become any of these four men so he decided to renounce his wealth, wife, and son in favor of becoming a religious ascetic. During this time period in Asia, nobility wore expensive jewelry in their ears, and the bigger the better! Thus, when Siddhartha give up his wealth, his stretched earlobes remained as a reminder that he was previously dragged down by wealth.
Since there is so much history on stretched earlobes, we will be returning to this subject again in the following weeks! :)
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